Purposeful HR

Purposeful HR

Welcome to Purposeful HR

Welcome to Purposeful HR

Friday, November 7, 2014

If Change is the Only Constant, Why is there not more Change Management?

We know the saying, change is the only constant. Probably most of us are living it in our work
lives, and we are no different at Cenikor!
We’ve been through quite a bit of change recently, with most of it positive,
such as bringing up two new programs, finalizing our CARF accreditation renewal
and implementing a system-wide Electronic Health Record. Some of the changes have been a bit harder,
such as members of our senior management team transitioning out of the
organization. But this led to finding some amazing individuals who are already making major contributions!

So regardless of whether or not the changes are viewed positive, all changes bring CHALLENGES.

Even a positive change, such as growing and starting
two new programs to provide more services, is going to have some bumps in the
road. As I’m on the other side of some
of our changes, I’ve been thinking lately, why is the change management process
not being used more frequently in the non-profit industry? I figured a good place to start is by sharing
what the process and not just assuming this is common knowledge.

Step 1 – Create Urgency – You must have honest discussions
about why the change is needed and have support from key individuals regarding
the change. Make sure looked at the
opportunities and potential challenges regarding the change and be able to
communicate effectively to create the urgency.

Step 2 – Create a Powerful Coalition – These are your key
stakeholders for the change. Get the
commitment from this team of leaders, as they will help you get the buy-in for
the change. Be sure you have leaders at
all levels that will be impacted by the change. Having a champion for the change
on the executive team is also important.

Step 3 – Develop a Vision and Strategy – How does this
impact your mission as a non-profit?
Create a clear vision for what is needed and the strategy to get there. Work to distill down the major details into a
brief overview. This is your “spiel”
that you and the Change Coalition will need to have down to persuade others, so
practice!

Step 4 – Communicate the Vision – Talk the talk AND walk the
walk. People typically need to hear
things 7 times before they retain it. So
don’t think one meeting with an overview or one training session is going to do
it. It takes REPETITION!! If you think you sound like a “broken record”
(for those of you old enough to remember records), then you probably are
communicating appropriately!

Step 5 – Empower Action – Put the structure in place for the
change to occur and remove barriers (human or otherwise). Reward people who are making the change
happen. You or one of your coalition
team members work with those who are resistant to help them see the benefit of
the change and what they may be losing if they do not change. People tend to be risk adverse and more
readily take action to protect against a potential loss.

Step 6 – Get Quick Wins – A great motivator is success! Creating short-term goals that allow progress
to the overall goal are critical. Be
sure to plan these with your team and follow through.

Step 7 – Leverage Wins to Drive Change – After each win, talk
about it. What is going right, where can
we improve? Build on the wins and know that
true change takes time, and that each success continues to drive the change.

Step 8 – Embed in Culture – Keep the change going; build on
momentum! Keep the leaders engaged, keep
telling the success stories, be sure to train new team members on the change.

Change is rarely easy and it takes careful planning and hard
work to make organizational change successful.
But trust me when I say you can either take the time on the front end to
plan and make the change successful, or you will be spending time on the back
end in clean up. We’ve had to do some of
both in the last few months!

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Kellee Webb SHRM-SCP, SPHR

Kellee Webb SHRM-SCP, SPHR

Welcome to Purposeful HR

Hi! My name is Kellee Webb, and I am the Vice President of Human Resources for Cenikor Foundation. I created the Purposeful HR blog to share my opinions and perspective on HR, management and leadership topics, and to help non-profit leaders achieve their mission through effective team management. learn more